I’ve always argued that
immorality is the root cause of most of our great social and economic problems.
Let’s put my argument in another light by going to first principles and
asking: What’s the moral basis for the use of violence by either a person
or government?

Part of the
answer is simple and has a broad consensus: a person is morally justified
in using violence when another initiates violence against his person or
his property. Self-defense is one of those "unalienable rights."

Governments represent people’s efforts to collectively provide self-defense. We authorize
governments to carry out our natural right of self-defense. The only legitimate
purpose for government use of violence and threats is to prevent or punish
those who initiate it against others. By granting government a near monopoly
on the use of violence, more order is created, and there‘s less preying
upon the weak by the strong.

The bottom line is: moral government use of
force cannot have a purpose exceeding the private use of force.

Let’s examine this generality
and ask: Do people have the right to rape, murder or steal? Fortunately,
most Americans would answer no, but the next question poses a problem.
Is there a moral basis for granting to government officials the right to
rape, murder or steal? Most Americans would give a no answer for rape,
but they’d be speaking with a forked tongue if they said they were against
government murder or theft.

"Doggone it, Williams,"
you say, "You’ve just insulted the entire nation!" Let’s look at it. Do
people have a moral right to take someone else’s money, by threats or by
force, either for themselves or to give to someone else? If they don’t
have the moral right to do so privately as individuals, how can they grant
government that right?

You say, "Government
programs like welfare, Medicare and farm handouts aren’t the same as theft;
they’re a result of a democratic process." Such a position differs little
from saying that acts – clearly immoral when done privately – become moral
and perhaps even laudatory when done by government.

The moral bankruptcy
of that position becomes clear if we apply it to rape. Some might object
to my calling welfare, Medicare, and farm handouts "theft" and prefer to
delude themselves by calling them "income redistribution." That being the
case, might we give sanction to government-sponsored rape by renaming it
"compassion redistribution"?

Next: Suppose I want
to manage my own retirement needs and resolutely refuse to pay into Social
Security. The first moral question you might ask is: Have I initiated violence
or the threat of violence toward anyone? The answer is a clear no.

Then, if I have not initiated
violence or threats toward anyone, what is the moral basis for threats
and violence being initiated against me by the government? Plus, if I resolutely
refuse to obey Social Security mandates and refuse to submit to fines,
property confiscation and arrest, the ultimate penalty will be death at
the hands of government. Some might argue that government initiation of
violence is just deserts for disobedience; however, laws do not necessarily
establish morality, as is clearly demonstrated by the Fugitive Slave Act,
Nazi anti-Semitic laws, and South Africa’s former apartheid laws.

The founders of our nation,
clinging to the "self-evidence" of "certain unalienable rights," risked
execution for treason and went to war with Britain for tyrannical acts
of Parliament and King George that pale in comparison to today’s tyrannical
acts of Congress. Today’s tolerance of tyranny highlights a danger of democracy,
namely, tyrannical acts assume an aura of moral legitimacy when there’s
a majoritarian process.

Identifying Legal Plunder

"But how is legal plunder to be identified? Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons what belongs to them, and gives it to other persons to whom it does not belong. See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do without committing a crime.
Then abolish this law without delay, for it is not only an evil itself, but also it is a fertile source for further evils because it invites reprisals. If such a law -- which may be an isolated case -- is not abolished immediately, it will spread, multiply, and develop into a whole system (of plunder)."